The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-07-02
dts n pretty place to sperA the

thing to fight. How long do you sup
pose it will be before they miss us at
home and come to look for us?"
"Why, they'd never think of coming
here to look!" said True. "And my
mother said 1 might stay all night
with my cousins over at Borrowsville.
She won't expect me home till to-mor-
row, and your folks will think you've
stayed with me. Any way, they would
never think we were up in the church
steeple."
"But when she knows we're lost,
Rosy McVie will tell, if she hasn't al
ready, exclaimed Tenney.
"She won't. She's too much afraid
of her father to tell that she gave us
the key" said True.
"But he'll find out that the key is
gone, and then he'll suspect that we
are here" said Tenney, who was de-
termined to look on the bright side.
Next Sunday, maybe! We shall be
starved to death before then" said Rob,
who was not proving himself as brave
as his desire for fighting had led his
comrades to suppose.
Somebody must have got wind of
what we meant to do, or the tongue
wouldn't have been taken out of the
bell, said Tenney; land no one could
be mean enough to keep us here for
long on the Fourth of july"
"Sandy Movie is mean enough for
anything" said Rob; land perhaps
they have only taken the tongue out to
repairit, or something of that kind. "
Sandy Movie meanwhile arose at
five o'clock, and took walk around
the church. There was no broken
window 80 they gave it up, the
young rascals, and have probably gone
over to Brownsville to do their
celebrating" said the sexton to him.
self, and felt a disappointment
that he should be denied the
grim satisfaction of bringing the
young rascals to justice. "Well, Cher
ryfeld will be the quieter for their be-
ing out of 1t to-day" he added, to con-
sole himself.
If not exactly out of Cherryield,
they were certainly too far above it to
interfere with its quiet.
A faint echo of distant Fourth-of-
July noises came tantalizing to their
ears now and then.
The minutes dragged along heavily.
They had no means of telling time, and
an hour seemed like day; but night
finally came, and the dimness deepen
ed to utter darkness, and stretched
npon the floor, they all fell asleep.
Being boys, they could sleep, al.
though the floor was hard, and keen
cravings reminded them that they had
gone breakfastless, dinnerless and sup
PEERLESS.
When True awakened, little shat
of sunlight shone through the tiny win.
dow, away lin the dimness of the stee'
pie. 1t danced upon the cobwebs thai
covered the dusty beams until they
looked as if made of gold thread. A
great, long-legged spider was dragging
hapless fly into his web.
The SPIDERS web had been partially
torn away, and the dust had beer
brushed from the beams in the corner
near it. There was a little scaffold il
the corner, covered with shavings ant
chips, evidently left there when the las
repairing was done.
But some body had been up in tha
corner lately. How otherwise coulC
the dust have been brushed away, ant
the SPIDERS web broken? True won
dered idly what any body could have
been there for, and then sudder
thought struck him that sent the blood
rushing to his head, and made him fol
a moment feel faint and dizzy.
In another moment he was climbing
up those beams nimbly as only SPUR
rel or a boy could climb. He put hi
hand under the heap of shavings anC
chips, and it touched something very
hard and cold. He dashed off the
chips and shavings with which it was
covered, and disclosed the bell-tongue
True wanted to shout for Joy, but he
knew that he needed all his strength
just now, and restrained himself. HI
could not have lifted the bell-tongue
even if he had not been obliged to clins
to beam with one hand, but he coulC
draw it along to the edge of the scat
folding, and then, with one mighty eff
fort he pushed it of.
1t came to the floor with a crash tina
seemed as if it might arouse all Cher
ryfeld, and certainly did efectually
arouse the two sleeping boys, VIII,
sprang to their feet, Rob with vagu,
impression that it was the report of
cannon, and that his time had nov
come to fight something.